Seven marathons, seven continents (Part 1)

Editor's note: This is the first in a two-part series on Greenfield native Bruce Sheriff's seven-continent marathon adventure.

HEBRON — Tucked away in the rolling hills of gravel roads and fields, lies a tan farmhouse near Hebron.

Hanging from the lodge-like walls of the farmhouse's interior are memories of one man's travels to the seven continents of the world.

For 65-year-old Greenfield resident Bruce Sheriff, though, these adventures weren't a typical vacation. Sheriff used the excuse of running a marathon to go on each of his adventures.

"I'm not good at just going and traveling and sitting on the beach, drinking those fuzzy little drinks," Sheriff said. "I have to be doing something with the natives, I guess."

His journey, though, started long before he ever completed a marathon.

Sheriff cannot remember exactly when he first began running, but he says he became interested in the late 1980's or early '90s, before sporting good stores had running departments.

"I took an office job in Greenfield and I started running just to stay in shape a little bit rather than sitting on my butt," Sheriff said. "That's how I started."

At that time, Sheriff never thought he would complete seven marathons on seven continents.

After running the Dam to Dam 12-mile race in Des Moines, Sheriff, who had a friend in Brookings, S.D., who ran marathons, decided he would give the 26.2-mile race a try.

The first marathon Sheriff ran was the Tucson Marathon in 2001.

"That's the only time I can't find, because everything else I've got documented in time," Sheriff said. "I think it was like 4:40 something. Then, I said I'd never run another one. Then, of course, I got back into it and started doing them as kind of traveling adventures, is what I tried to do them as."

Sheriff's next marathon, or "traveling adventure," was to Portland, Ore., which is the marathon he used in his quest to join the Seven Continents Club, since he had his time documented.

International runner

"I decided in 2005 to go to Prague. We flew into Geneva, rented a car and went up to France, Germany, drove over to Prague," Sheriff said. "Then the marathon, finished that. Then we came back through Austria and Switzerland, and took the train to Brussels, Belgium and flew home. So we tried to do a little too much on that trip."

That gave Sheriff two completed continents.

In 2006, Sheriff decided to run a marathon in Havanna, Cuba.

"I always wanted to go to Cuba," Sheriff said, "just because you weren't supposed to go there."

Sheriff failed to complete the marathon in Cuba, which marked the first time he had failed to complete a marathon he started.

Despite not finishing the marathon, Sheriff's trip to Cuba opened another door for him.

"I ran into a guy there from Minnesota," Sheriff said. "He was there to run the marathon. He said, 'If you're crazy enough to come down here and run in Cuba,' he said, 'I ran in Antarctica last year. When I get back I'll send you a DVD of my trip to Antarctica.'

"We ran that in November, and I think in January or February, I got his DVD in 2007. I saw his DVD and I called Marathon Tours, signed up and I was on the waiting list for 2008. It was already booked."

Antarctica

But, Sheriff got his chance to run a marathon in Antarctica in 2009.

Sheriff called Antarctica his favorite location to run a marathon out of all of his adventures.

"Just being there, not many people get to go there," Sheriff said. "In the six hours that I was running, the weather changed from sunny to snowing, to sleet, to rain and that was, it's just awesome to go there."

The Marathon Tours group traveled to Antarctica on a Russian research vessel and stayed on the Russian research base on South Shetland Island, with the marathon course looping through all the different research bases.

"We basically ran a double loop through the research bases. We went to the Chilean base, then the Argentina base, and there was a turnaround at the China base," Sheriff said. "On my second loop, there were a couple of scientists there at the Chinese base, and they had a little cooler with a couple of beers in it, and they wondered if I wanted a beer.

"It was at about 20 miles of the 26, and I thought how many times do you get to drink a beer in Antarctica with two Chinese scientists? So I pulled over and we shared a beer and then I took off for the rest of it."

It was on the Antarctica trip Sheriff first found out about the seven marathons on seven continents challenge, which gave him a new goal to aim for.

"Up to this time, I hadn't really heard of the seven continents thing, I was just doing them as adventures – I'd ran with the bulls in Pamplona and I'd done all that stuff," Sheriff said. "Everybody was going to Antarctica to fill up their seventh continent, so I thought wait a minute, I've done Europe, North America, now Antarctica, and Antarctica is the tough one to get out of the way. So, I came back and said I think I'm going to do seven continents and put it on my bucket list."